• Gig of the week: Enablers, Blue Whale and Selaah @ Voodoo

    November 5, 2013 - By 

    Just over five years on their resounding show at Laverys Bunker, Calfornian post-rock quartet Enablers’ show at Voodoo on Friday, November 8 is our gig of the week. Featuring the poetry and spoken word of frontman Pete Simonelli, the band are renown for their intense and altogether idiosyncratic live performances – think Slint meets Jack Kerouac. Better still, off the back of the release of 2011’s Blown Realms And Stalled Explosions, one of post-rock’s finest musicians, Doug Scharin – formerly of Codeine, HiM, June of 44, Rex and Mice Parade – is the band’s current drummer. Support on the night comes from…

  • Gig of the Week: Bouts, Hurdles, Go Swim

    October 29, 2013 - By 

    Off the back of the release of their stellar debut album – Nothing Good Gets Away – our gig of the week this week will see Dublin indie rock band Bouts return to Belfast for a special album launch party on Friday, November 1. Supported by two of the North’s finest indie bands, Hurdles and Go Swim, the four-piece will play the wonderfully tucked-away Menagerie in the heart of the Holylands –  their first show here since they supported Amateur Historians in the same venue early last year. Go here for the show’s event page, check out our interview with Bouts…

  • The Thin Air Club: Jetplane Landing – Don’t Try Listening Party

    October 18, 2013 - By 

    To mark the start of the Thin Air Club downstairs in Belfast’s Voodoo bar every Sunday night, we’re holding a special listening party of Don’t Try, the incredible new album by Derry band Jetplane Landing on Sunday, October 20. Aside from playing the album from start to finish, we will also be spinning tracks from bands that have influenced Jetplane, some of their earlier material and many other great tunes on the night. The first FIVE people through the door get a free copy of Don’t Try and there will be mindblowingly good drink promotions all night. Awesome. Go here for the…

  • Gig of the week: Astralnaut, Dutch Schultz, Bellos

    October 14, 2013 - By 

    This week’s Thin Air gig of the week is surely one of the heaviest Radar line-ups at Belfast’s QUBSU to date. Headlined by fast-rising sludge-doom overlords Astralnaut (above), the three-band bill on Thursday, October 17 also features the riff-fuelled talents of the ever blistering Dutch Schultz and one of the country’s best breakthrough bands of the year, alt-rock three-piece Bellos. Check out our Live Session with Bellos here, our recent interview with Astralnaut here and the video for Dutch Schultz’s fantastic ‘Year Of The Mule’ here. See below for the Radar poster for the show.  

  • Emma Sweeney & Friends @ The Mac, Belfast

    October 9, 2013 - By 

    Fast-rising musician Emma Sweeney and guests will perform a night of cutting edge Irish traditional music at Belfast’s MAC on Thursday, October 10. A finalist at the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2003, Sweeney will perform music from her album Pangea, which was released early this year to critical acclaim. Despite her age, Sweeney she accumulated an impressive amount of live experience performing alongside a host of respected traditional musicians including Dick Gaughan, Cara Dillon, Mike McGoldrick and Dezi Donnelly. The performance is part of Not So Trad, a new series of MAC music events offering traditional music with a fresh, modern approach…

  • Rhinoceros

    October 8, 2013 - By 

    Romanian Theatre of the Absurd dramatist Eugène Ionesco’s classic play Rhinoceros will be be staged at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre as part of this year’s Belfast Festival at Queens. Directed by Joanne Allen – an alumni of Queens University – the play centers on the inhabitants of an entire town, in which ‘Rhinoceritis’ has gradually transformed them all into rhinoceroses. All except one, that is, for Berenger remains untouched. In a world in which everyone becomes a rhinoceros and no-one speaks the same language, the question is asked: what is there to understand? The staging takes place from October 25-October 27. Tickets – priced at £12 – are available…

  • Gig of the week: The Bonnevilles, Tied To Machines and more

    October 1, 2013 - By 

    Our gig of the week this week is the wonderfully-titled Oktobersesh, a four-band, riff-fuelled charity show at Banbridge Town Football Club on Saturday, October 5. Set to be headlined by Lurgan garage-blues duo The Bonnevilles, the line-up for the fundraiser also features the mighty talents of hardcore heroes Tied To Machines (above), Co. Down “experimental alternative indie” quartet AudioCavalry and Dromore post-rock band The King Said. Check out the poster for the event (overlooking Abandcalledboy, who had to pull out) below and go here for the event page.

  • Gig of the week: Cut The Transmission

    September 22, 2013 - By 

    Our gig of the week this week will see some of the best riff-fuelled band’ – both homegrown and from across the water – assemble to bid the finest of farewell to Derry alt-rock heroes Fighting With Wire. Taking place through the day and night of Saturday, September 28 at Derry’s The Venue, Cut The Transmission – headlined by Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls – will feature performances from And So I Watch You From Afar, Future Of The Left, LaFaro, More Than Conquerors and more. See below for the full poster. Tickets for the event are £20 and available…

  • Adam Buxton presents: BUG Radiohead Special

    September 17, 2013 - By 

    Having brought The Best of Bug to Belfast in May as part of Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, English comedian, writer and broadcast Adam Buxton returns to the city with a special BUG show focusing on Radiohead. This unique show will see the band’s amazing music video output celebrated on the big screen – their greatest videos, their collaborations with directors such as such as Jonathan Glazer, Grant Gee, Shynola, Garth Jennings – and BUG’s very own Buxton – and also rareties, seldom seen on the big screen, or indeed any screen. Don’t miss what promises to be a very special night…

  • Gig of the week: Sea Pinks, September Girls, Affleck

    September 17, 2013 - By 

    After much deliberation and chin-rubbing, our gig of the week this week takes place at Belfast’s Oh Yeah Centre on Friday, September 20. Surely set to be a highlight of this year’s Culture Night Belfast, Belfast-based surf-pop band Sea Pinks will headline a three-band bill also featuring fast-rising Dublin all-female noise-pop quartet September Girls and new-fangled Belfast electronic trio Affleck. Doors are at 6pm and admission is free. Go here to learn more. Check out the poster for the show below. Stream the excellent Freak Waves by Sea Pinks below.